A home in Tathra devastated by the bushfire. The fire was officially declared contained more than 54 hours after it began.
Photograph: Dean Lewins/EPA

It was a bittersweet homecoming for the Tathra locals whose houses were spared in the fire that ravaged the small New South Wales coastal town.

As they were free to walk back through their doors, their neighbours could only peer through a bus window at the smouldering ruins they once called home.

Patience wears thin for Tathra residents as they wait to return to bushfire-ravaged town

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“My heart drops for the people who lost their property,” said Eamonn Martin who, with wife Yvonne, were among the first residents allowed to return.

“It’s the indiscriminate nature of these things, that one house is standing perfect and the one next to it is gone - looking like ground zero.”

Authorities reopened more than 20 streets to residents and people with belongings at holiday accommodation on Tuesday night.

It came soon after the Rural Fire Service officially declared the bushfire contained, about 54 hours after it began.

A day of water bombing and cooler temperatures helped crews bring the blaze under control by late afternoon. Light rain followed a few hours later.

But many houses remain off-limits with “DANGER” signs and police tape barricading some properties amid fears of asbestos, live power, falling trees and crumbling structures. Those unable to return home were taken on a grim bus tour earlier in the day to see the damage first-hand.

They weren’t allowed to get off the bus, with authorities concerned about safety. Many residents cried and embraced as they returned to the evacuation centre in Bega. “It’s heart-wrenching,” Ray Coates, whose unit in a retirement village is still standing, told reporters. “With floods, you’ve still got a house. But with fires, you’ve got nothing.”

Coates said people broke down as they passed their razed homes. “One [woman] saw her house and she just yelled out to people ‘Can you see my cat?’” Mr Coates said.

At last count, 69 homes and 30 cabins or caravans were destroyed. Thirty others were significantly damaged, and more than 1,200 hectares of bush burnt.

At the crest of Dilkera Road, multiple houses have been flattened. Two driveways, littered with charred gum leaves, lead only to piles of twisted tin, blackened gardens and brick chimneys jutting from the ashes.

A few doors down, the Martins’ house was untouched. But they know what it’s like, having lost their place in a fire before moving to Tathra.

“It’s not about how they feel now, it’s how they’ll deal with it in the coming months,” Martin told Australian Associated Press.

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“That’s where the pain is going to be, trying to put your life back together bit by bit.”

Inspections have confirmed no airborne asbestos, but some damaged properties will remain isolated until further tests are conducted. They’re expected to be completed in the coming week.

The RFS had to deal with another front on Tuesday, responding to concerns it declined offers of help from Fire & Rescue NSW before the fire raged out of control.

It said the offer of an urban pumper wouldn’t have been appropriate because of the difficult terrain. An RFS spokesman reassured the hundreds of locals in the evacuation centre their efforts weren’t compromised.

Tathra bushfire: Rural Fire Service defends rejecting offer of help

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“If a suitable appliance is offered, for the protection of life and property, we would never refuse that,” he told the crowd. “Life and property are paramount - life one, property two.”

Many Tathra residents believe emergency services did a good job with water-bombing equipment, and extra trucks wouldn’t have made much difference as the fire was so fast-moving. Others are more concerned about restrictions on hazard reduction burns and patchy mobile phone coverage in the area which meant many residents didn’t receive emergency warning texts.

Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten, who surveyed Tathra on Tuesday, said now wasn’t the time to engage in a “blame game” about mobile coverage and land clearing.